"Buy the ticket. Take the ride." ~ Hunter S. Thompson

Date

July 23, 2011

A few words about singer Amy Winehouse being found dead today in London of a possible drug overdose at age 27

Is it a surprise that this comes as no surprise at all? I’m sure somebody had Amy Winehouse ranked high in their dead pool and not without good reason. She had been hurtling headlong down a path of drug and alcohol fueled self-destruction since “Rehab” had made her a global superstar six years ago.

What this proves is some people should never be famous. Particularly not if you have an addictive personality and some rather nasty habits.

My daughter liked Back To Black more than I did. I bought it at a used CD store, gave it a couple of listens and returned it within the three-day window. There were a couple of songs I thought weren’t half-bad, but there was nothing I felt like I needed to hear again. The Brits have carved out an impressive list of neo-soul singers with Winehouse being the most celebrated if not the best of the bunch., But Back To Black dropped in 2006 and Winehouse’s follow-up never materialized admidst all the tabloid turmult her life had become.

Her drunken performance in Belgrade in June where she was a wreck on two legs and the crowd booed her off the stage was such a hot mess of epic fail proportions her record company quickly scrubbed the Internet of videos of it. Winehouse’s ongoing series of public meltdowns was like driving down a country road at midnight with no lights on; the crash was inevitable. It was only a matter of how brutal the impact would be.

Like Kurt Cobain, Winehouse was extraordinarily talented and extraordinarily messed up. A lot of people admired them both but it seems very few actually loved them. Then again junkies aren’t the most loveable people in the world. They’re kind of sad and pathetic, but you can’t really feel all that sorry for them.

This isn’t a tragedy. 91 people, mostly teenagers, being shot and blown up by a neo-Nazi, anti-Islam nut job in Norway is a tragedy. This was a case of slow motion suicide. You see ’em come. You see ’em go. Life in the fast lane, I guess. You rarely see someone go straight to hell as fast as she did when she finally hit the big time.

Amy Winehouse is finally at rest, but it’s doubtful she’s found peace.

She called the shot herself:

I cheated myselfLike I knew I wouldI told you, I was troubleYou know that I’m no good

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You can’t talk to a man when he don’t want to understand and apparently you can’t negotiate with Republicans either. So why try?

John Boehner walked out of debt ceiling negotiations, again? What is this? The third or fourth time already? Boehner leaves and comes back more times than an abused spouse.

The hell with him. Boehner’s afraid if he makes a deal Eric Cantor will take his job. And he wants to keep his job so he won’t make any that raises the debt ceiling without huge and painful spending cuts. Painful for Democrats and their constituents. As long as no millionaire or billionaire is left behind, that’s all The Boehner Bunch cares about.

This is getting nowhere fast. After Boehner’s latest walk, the President explained to the press what went wrong this time.

Obama said he offered Boehner “over a trillion dollars in cuts to discretionary spending,” including domestic and defense spending.

“We then offered an additional $650 billion in cuts to entitlement programs,” the president said. “Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security.” What Obama wanted in return was $1.2 trillion in revenues and none in tax rate increases.

"I know what you mean, dawg."

No deal, dude.

“It’s hard to understand why Speaker Boehner would walk away from this kind of deal,” a bewildered Obama said. “Can they say yes to anything?”

Apparently not and so its time to say the hell with the Republicans. If the debt ceiling is going to be raised and Chaos and Disorder avoided it may be up to the president to save America from going off the economic cliffs. The GOP is sitting in the backseat of the car screaming in Obama’s ear to speed up and drive off the cliff. He needs to throw an elbow into their yapping mouths and take control of the situation before disaster strikes.

Maybe it’s time for President Obama to take President Clinton’s advice, bypass the Tea Party-possessed GOP, invoke the 14th Amendment and raise the debt ceiling with the Constitutional powers granted to the Chief Executive without cutting any more dirty deals with double dealers like Boehner, Cantor and Mitch McConnell.

A deadlocked Congress has become incapable of acting consistently; it commits to entitlements it will not reduce, appropriates funds it does not have, borrows money it cannot repay and then imposes a debt ceiling it will not raise. One of those things must give; in reality, that means that the conflicting laws will have to be reconciled by the only actor who combines the power to act with a willingness to shoulder responsibility — the president.

There comes a time when no deal is better than a bad deal and a terrible deal would be one that shreds the social safety net for the poor, the elderly, students, veterans and the most vulnerable and suffering citizens while sparing Wall Street once again as Main Street bears the brunt.

Obama said he’d risk his presidency to resolve this crisis. Fine. Time to call the Republicans bluff. If they have the balls to try to impeach him, then let them try to impeach him. The polls say the GOP is playing a losing hand with their “drive faster, homey, not slower” death dive. Maybe this is all just one really long and really bad television show where everything gets resolved in the last five minutes and maybe the Republicans are as crazy as they seem to be.

Could the Republicans decide to try and impeach the president if he bypasses them and raises the debt ceiling without Congress? Maybe. Let’s find out.

My guess It will never happen. Not with a presidential election right around the corner. The Republicans will be exposed as the bullies and cowards they are and they will lose And the president and the country will win.

Put a little butter on the peas, Mr. President. They aren’t so bad at all.